The Meuse at Games time
You will perhaps come across them this summer in the aisles of the Arena Paris Sud, Porte de Versailles, in the streets of the capital or around the Pierre-Mauroy stadium, in Villeneuve-d’Ascq (North). Fethiye Foures, Thomas Martin, David and Véronique Berleet, Yannick Demartheaux: these five Meusiens received their visa to be among the 45,000 volunteers who will be mobilized during the Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP) in Paris 2024.
But, at four months from the start of the event, they still have to deal with a certain number of uncertainties. Thomas Martin, for example, does not know “not the actual dates” to which he will be called upon. This young aeronautics executive only knows that he will be a “competition area team member” at the Porte de Versailles – for handball matches, he supposes – and at the Prisme room in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis). ), a place designed for all disabilities and which will be a training location for the Games.
“I don’t know my missions, we may have to clean the roads”confides David Berleet, future “road competition area team member”, when his wife, Véronique, will be “spectator services team member” at the Arena Paris Sud. “From what we know, the schedules will be made and sent by April”, he adds, while ensuring that “just knowing that we are participating in the Olympics is a source of pride”.
“It’s a bit of a hassle to know where they are going to be, the exact dates, where they will be accommodated, how to remove their outfits”, confirms Jérémie Daumas, director of the Meuse departmental Olympic and sports committee, who launched “Team Meuse” a year ago, with the department. The objective was to create a team of volunteers to participate in local events, but also – more or less deliberately – to bring them to the Games.
Slightly cryptic email
Fethiye Foures is one of the very first members of this “team” to have received a mission offer from Paris 2024, at the end of October 2023. This 53-year-old teacher passed the selection process with flying colors, which consisted of fill out a long online questionnaire: “I didn’t expect that at all, you had to answer a lot of redundant questions to show who you are, like employers do. »
Example : “Would I prefer: “to receive rewards for my efforts” or “to work without being supervised too closely”? » The second part, more traditional, allowed candidates to highlight their experience. At the end of the test, a list of possible missions, with percentages of correspondence with his profile, was displayed on Fethiye Foures’ screen: “I changed a lot of things, I wanted to be as close as possible to the athletes, not in the parking lot seeing nothing. »
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